On the Avifauna of New Caledonia. 355 



XXX. — Notes on the Avifauna of New Caledonia. By 

 Edgar L. Layard, C.M.G., F.Z.S., &c., H.B.M. Consul, 

 and E. Leopold C. Layard, Vice-Consul^ at Noumea. 



We tope the readers of ' The Ibis ' will not think us pre- 

 sumptuous if, after a residence of only six months in New 

 Caledonia^ where even our excursions have been confined to 

 the neighbourhood of Noumea, we make so bold as to write 

 some ''Notes on the Avifauna ^^ of the island. 



We should premise that we believe ourselves to be in pos- 

 session of all the literature extant on the ornithology of the 

 island and the " Loyalty Group/^ which we shall always 

 include in our " Notes. ^^ We have the articles in the ' Revue 

 Zoologique/ 1860, by MM. Verreaux and Des Murs. While 

 in Sydney for his health, Mr. E. L. Layard was fortunate 

 enough to find in the extensive and valuable library of that well- 

 known naturalist Dr. George Bennett (the contents of which 

 were most liberally placed at his disposal by his old and valued 

 friend) an excellent paper by M. Henri Jouan, entitled 

 "Notes sur la Faune Ornithologique de la NouvelleCaledonie,^' 

 in the ' Memoires de la Societe Imperiale des Sciences Na- 

 turelles de Cherbourg/ tome ix., p. 197 (1863) . Erom this he 

 copied descriptions of all the named species, a few others being 

 alluded to without any designation ; it is therefore impossible 

 to say to what they refer. Then we have Brenchleys^s ' Cruise 

 of the " Curayoa,'^ ' G. R. Gray^s ' Birds of the Tropical Is- 

 lands,' and Finsch and Hartlaub's 'Ornithology of Fiji, Tonga, 

 and Samoa.^ A small Colonial Government Library here has 

 a fine series of the travels and voyages of all the old French 

 navigators ; and Mr. F. W. Hutton, of the Otago Museum 

 in New Zealand, has been kind enough to copy out for us 

 descriptions of New-Caledonian birds from works accessible 

 to him, such as Forster's ' Voyage ' &c. We thus think we 

 are in a position to speak with some show of authority on the 

 subject. 



Our catalogue of species known in or said to inhabit New 

 Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands, amounts to just 100. 

 MM. Verreaux and Des Murs catalogued (1860) 76 species; 



